The hip-hop artist known as Dima Kash who makes his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, traces his origins back to Russia. At age six he moved to the U.S. with his family who were refugees of war. His time in the states as a child were filled with struggle, until he discovered that he had a talent for wordplay and making music. Today his path has taken him from Russia to America and even to Japan as he tours and promotes his music.

“I’ve loved music all my life,” he said. “My uncle had a band in Israel and that was kind of the first time I thought about writing music. I started writing love songs when I was 13; started making beats when I was 14; and by the age of 15 I started falling in love with hip-hop. That was my thing after that. I loved the gritty-ness and the real-ness of that type of music. I love that it’s the kind of music that allows you to speak your mind. Back then there weren’t any other songs like that – it was all love or partying and nothing really about the struggle. But the music that brought out the struggle was hip-hop, and I came from the struggle so it spoke to me.”

His most popular single – with more than 200,000 plays and counting on YouTube and Vevo, and more than 1.8 million plays on Spotify – is called “Can’t Breathe,” which is a track that he said serves as a testament to that journey and everything he’s been through in the music industry over the years – the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s a song that came about while spending so much time on the road – an outpouring of his feelings that ended up on paper and eventually found its way into a song.

“The feel is a mellow vibe, but it’s very lyrical and fast-paced rapping,” Dima Kash said. “The hook on it is a sample from Bebe Rexha’s ‘Can’t Stop Drinking About You.’ It has a little mix of techno and hip-hop – kind of like trap in a way. But it’s different. It’s not something you’d heard on a daily basis.”

Kash said it’s a song that will be one of the singles on an album he’s called “Kash Over Everything” – which is available for purchase on digital download sites such as iTunes and Spotify. It’s also a song that has earned him some respect in the hip-hop circles of late – including garnering a Hip-Hop Artist of the Year Award for the State of Minnesota, presented by the Twin Cities Urban Music Awards. He hopes to parlay the success from that single into more appearances at festivals and concerts, such as the Soundset event that happens in Minnesota every May.

In the meantime, he continues to work on creating new music. He’ll follow up his single with a new mixtape entitled “The Last Prophet” that he hopes to release no later than April. He’s also working on music videos for many of his singles that he will post to his YouTube page. Fans who want to check out more of his music can visit his Soundcloud page, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates. He’s also active on Snapchat under the handle @theonlydimakash.